Just booked my place! I'm really very excited! P.S., you done any long distance open water? I've done some sea swimming and a 3.8k in teh River Arun last Summer, but this looks amazing and I've been stalking the OSS for months waiting for tickets to go on sale.

I would think you enter the water when it's slack/on the turn, and then get the advantage of the current as the tide goes out. That could knock 5-10 minutes per mile off your still water/pool time.

And apart from the elites and for most mere mortals, this is one to be enjoyed. For me, spending 2-3 hours face down in a river is pointless and not worth the £75 ticket price. Taking a bit of time to enjoy the swim, company and scrolling countryside? Yeah. That's worth the ticket.

I grew up playing about on the Dart so its tempting, have rowed, sailed and canoed it so why not swim it! I would be interested to know how they measured teh disatnce & if they advise on what line to take as the shortest distance most certainly won't be the quickest and if the tide is far enough out when you get down around Stoke Gabriel you could walk about 2 miles of it.

DD, I think it starts at the turn of high tide so there's as much water in the River / Estuary as possible! So, as Snap says! It's been going for a couple of years now and is getting more and more popular. Only 200 of the 750 places left last night after only the first day of being open!Plum, get yourself a lilo and surf down the river!!Dusty, as the water's coming off the moor it's always cold so, it's wetsuit compulsory and you can even wear your gimp mask! I'm in as it's just a short drive from where I'm spending most of my time these days!

One of my favourite things about swim events is you never know how fast anyone is. With running, you line up at the start, you size people up, look at their shoes, GPS watches, physique and whatever else. You make a call as to how they'll perform and how you'll stack up against them. You're sometimes wrong but often right.

Not so with swimming. That bloater standing next to you just happens to have a resting heart rate of 45 and a natural technique that would put an otter to shame. And he/she is going to beat you.

Last year's Arun river swim was won overall by a female tri-athlete, with second place taken by a 15 year old female. Margins were a full minute and half a minute respectively.

Did this one last year. Nice bit of current at the start. & a great strating system , All on the quayside in your wave (4 waves ranked on speed, slowest first) gun goes & you all file over the timing mat down some steps & away, very civilised. No mass brawl or biff like at a tri start.

Found navigation difficult last year, all over the river, crashed into rocks twice, tried to swim up a tributory, almost missed the 2nd feed station. & when we hit the tidal bit it was really choppy with a head wind. Its a nice event but I'll only do it again if I thought I'd survive without the rubber. Last year it was about 12 degrees at the start, so too cold for me without insulation, but quite a few go 'naked'. Just about full by now though I think!

This isn’t a ‘race’ report as the organisers don’t call it a race! Anyway, brief preamble.

Training was a bit haphazard, as usual! I didn’t really start until I came back from holiday in early August, so a month to build up some sort of stamina. That meant Saturday and Sunday mornings up at 6 as well as Wednesday’s! Then more swimming on Monday and Wednesday evenings. I quickly found that although fitness was improving quickly speed seemed to have reached a plateau. I’ve already entered Nice next year and would seriously like to get under the hour for the swim, so looking at the long term I decided 1:2:1 coaching would help. Crikey did that show up some bad habits as well as a shoulder issue! Armed with loads of drills and exercises it was back to training!

Pre race was very relaxed. The sun was out and swimming wasn’t due to start until 13.30 with the ‘yellow’ wave. Nice lay in followed by some porridge and bananas.

The idea is there are four waves with the slowest starting first and the different waves then setting off at 15 minute intervals.

So, wet suit on. I wasn’t (am not) hardy enough to swim without one on, despite the river temperature being allegedly 16 degrees, although there were about 30 who were! Damn fools and Englishmen heh!

Finally called forward on my wave, take a quick gel, and we walked across the timing mat, down the slip way and after a faff getting water inside the suit swam straight out across to the other side and we were under way. No washing machine. No biff, kicks, punches or anything! It was almost ‘Excuse me, do you mind if I swim past you?’ and ‘Terribly sorry to nudge you old boy!’!!

I saw ‘Madge’ and Oscar on the bank as I crossed the river, quick wave, but I thought she had missed the wave and shout as there were so many people lining the edge there!

It was a gorgeous day. After some heavy rain on Friday and through the night the current felt quite strong and the following wind was a bonus as well!

The early part of the river isn’t especially wide and it was a bit crowded being herded to one side by the body boarders and event boats.

Previously bookmarked threads are now visible in "Followed Threads". You can also manage notifications on these threads from the "Forum Settings" section of your profile settings page to prevent being sent an email when a reply is made.